"Everyone, pay attention. As soon as you walk to the city gate, draw your sword and kill him. Then guard the city gate and create enough opportunities for the cavalry to enter the city." Among the three thousand Liao infantry, the leader walked with his head lowered and whispered to the side.
People convey orders.
The person who came was none other than Hu Yanqing.
It was his idea just now that he gave Yang Wenguang the idea to take off the clothes of the prisoners of Liao soldiers and put them on them so that they could disguise themselves as Liao soldiers and enter the city.
Hu Yanqing was worried that once the cavalry appeared and the Fanyang City defenders sealed the city gate, it would be difficult for them to capture the city. For the sake of safety, it was better to disguise themselves as the opponent. In this way, it would be difficult to capture Fanyang.
There is a greater possibility of success.
Originally, they were worried that when they arrived in front of the city, the Liao troops guarding the city would have to ask questions to confirm their identities before allowing them to enter the city. Unexpectedly, it would go so smoothly. The city gates would open wide, and they would be welcomed into the city.
appearance.
Thinking about it, if they are really Liao soldiers, once they enter Fanyang City, it will increase the strength of the defenders in the city. Of course, these Liao army defenders will be happy.
The distance between the two sides was getting closer, and the voices of some Liao soldiers could already be heard.
"rush!"
Hu Yanqing suddenly strode forward and rushed forward. Behind him were three thousand vanguard soldiers disguised as Liao soldiers.
The big blade was swung up and down. A Liao soldier standing in front of the city gate didn't know what was going on, but he felt a pain in his chest. He looked down and saw a big gash in his chest.
"No!"
The Liao soldiers, whose mouths were open but could no longer make any sound, fell to the ground with unwilling eyes.
them
He never thought why his colleagues would attack him.
Hu Yanqing and others moved very quickly. They were all veterans who had experienced the baptism of the battlefield. They were used to seeing life and death. After slashing with their swords, they did not even look at whether the Liao soldiers were really dead because they were familiar with their sword skills.
confidence.
Dozens of Liao soldiers were killed and caught off guard. They had no time to resist, so they were surrounded and killed by the vanguard army, and the city gate was lost.
"Oh no, Song soldiers are here to kill us."
At this moment, why don't you know the true identity of Hu Yanqing and these people? Some Liao soldiers standing on the tower turned around and ran after witnessing everything.
Soon, the entire Fanyang City was filled with shouts of Song soldiers coming to kill them.
At this time, the sound of horses trampling the ground sounded, and Yang Wenguang came galloping from a distance with more than 2,000 vanguard cavalry.
"Leave some people to guard the city gate, and kill the others with me!"
Hu Yanqing didn't want to wait for Yang Wenguang to arrive. He wanted to make military exploits first and enter the city first.
Zhang Jian was still checking the quantities of various military supplies in the warehouse, when suddenly he heard loud shouts.
At first, because of the distance, I couldn't hear clearly, but soon, a group of Liao soldiers rushed over. They were Zhang Jian's personal soldiers.
When he saw Zhang Jian, he picked up Zhang Jian and ran away without saying a word.
"What are you doing? What happened?" Seeing that he was being picked up, Zhang Jian realized something was wrong and asked aloud.
"Sir, the Song soldiers have entered the city from the south gate and will come to us immediately. We will protect you and leave first." The captain of the soldiers replied in a deep voice.
"What? Song soldiers entered the city, how could it be so fast?" Zhang Jian's mind was thinking at this time.
A blank slate.
In front of Qigou Pass, he left behind 30,000 troops. Could it be that something happened to them all?
When he thought that he might lose another 30,000 soldiers, plus the previous defeat of Xincheng, there would be more than 70,000 soldiers left, Zhang Jian felt his eyes darken and fainted.
Zhang Jian was really tired.
Facing Su Shi during this period of time put a lot of pressure on him. It can be said that he couldn't sleep well and couldn't eat well.
Now I suddenly heard that Song soldiers were coming to kill me, and when I thought that I might have lost another 30,000 troops, I felt dizzy and passed out.
The captain of the guard tried Zhang Jian's snorting, and found that he just fainted, so there was no big problem, so he continued to shout, "Quickly, protect the Lord and leave the city. Leave some people behind, burn these... burn all these things
Already."
The military supplies that had been accumulated with great difficulty, the captain of the soldiers did not want to leave them to the Song people who were attacking the city. He just didn't know if it was too late.
Zhang Jian escaped.
The dignitaries and gentry in the city also fled with their families and their families.
The entire Fanyang City was in chaos.
After Yang Wenguang entered the city with more than 2,000 cavalry, he did not encounter any decent resistance.
The Liao soldiers in the city either ran away, or they had no time to escape and chose to kneel down and surrender.
Some dignitaries who had no time to escape were willing to lead the way and actively guided the vanguard to various important places in the city.
In the face of death, few people will not be afraid. Liao people are also human beings, and they also have Liao traitors.
The fire was extinguished just as it was ignited. This is the credit of the Liao traitors.
Fanyang City was captured. That night, the entire city was in chaos. The cries for mercy and help were endless. They stopped faintly until dawn.
Come down.
That is, after daybreak, Hu Yanqing led the 4,000 vanguard troops who had rested in the middle of the night last night from Fanyang North City and continued to kill in the direction of Liangxiang in the north.
Just an hour after Hu Yanqing set off, Xu Ba also left the city with 10,000 reserve imperial troops, followed by 5,000 dragon guards led by Lei Meng and nearly 5,000 black cavalry led by Ji Zhu.
It is conceivable that in the next half month, the southern part of Liao Dynasty, including the entire Xijin Prefecture, will be in chaos.
Just when Su Shi was commanding the army to capture Fanyang City and head north, behind him, Hu Yunfeng's temporary third brigade of black cavalry and the 30,000 Xinzhou soldiers led by Shi Qianshan also left the new city and passed Qigou Pass.
We arrived at the foot of Laishui City.
He kept his whereabouts hidden along the way and arrived at the foot of Laishui City in the afternoon.
"General Hu, look, the number of soldiers guarding the city has increased a lot. It seems that they are on guard." Shi Qianshan put down the telescope in his hand and said softly to the side.
"It's okay, they should know that our main force captured Fan Yang, they won't think that we will divide our forces to attack Laishui City." Hu Yunfeng said confidently.
After saying that, he whistled loudly behind him with a smile on his face. Then, Chen Jiu led a group of men wearing Liao people's clothes and began to walk towards the official road in twos and threes. After a while, he and
On the road, some Liao people who were on their way came together.
After Xincheng and Fanyang City were captured successively, the nearby Liao people became panic-stricken.
Many people abandoned the villages and towns where they originally lived and rushed to nearby cities with their families.
In their eyes, it seems that if they stay in the city, their safety will be
Higher.
There were too many people coming from all directions, but the gatekeepers of Laishui City were even happier, because the more people there were in the city, the more power they would have available once the Song army really came to kill them.
In this way, they didn't even do any inspections and just allowed the people to enter the city.
Perhaps they were lucky, thinking that since the Song army went north, they would not come to Laishui City again.
Little did they know that this kind of job of sneaking into the city was what Chen Jiu and the others, who were once bandits, were good at.
In the past, they often did this when they made sneak attacks on Liao's cities. But later they did it more often, and Liao was prepared.
But now, the enemy of the Liao Kingdom is Su Shi, not bandits like them, but it is tantamount to giving them a chance.
Just like the Laishui City in front of them, they did not take too many precautions and allowed Chen Jiu and others to disguise themselves as ordinary Liao people and enter the city.
"Okay, let's wait until dark." Seeing Chen Jiu and the others entering the city, Hu Yunfeng breathed a sigh of relief, and then sat down in the forest. All the troops who followed this time began to seize the time to rest.
That is, more than two hours later, chaos broke out in Laishui City that night. Three large circles were drawn with torches in front of the East City Gate, and then the East City Gate opened from the inside. The temporary third brigade of the Black Cavalry plus 30,000 Xinzhou soldiers killed them.
Enter the city.
Laishui was breached.
Three days later, Hu Yunfeng and others arrived at Yixian County in the west. When they wanted to use this method to enter the city, they discovered that the city gate of Yixian County had already been closed, and there were many torches on the city tower, even in the dark sky, and the military.
There are countless soldiers.
"If we can't capture it, put five thousand troops outside so that they don't dare to leave the city."
Hu Yunfeng sighed,
But he was not too discouraged. Originally, Su Shi's order was to attack if he could. If he couldn't attack, he would scare the Liao soldiers from leaving the city.
Now that Laishui City has been destroyed, everyone in the Liao Kingdom is afraid that they will be in danger. Even if they borrow their courage, they will not dare to go out of the city to fight.
Five thousand soldiers and horses were left outside Yixian County, and they continued westward with the army. Along the way, the Liao soldiers avoided all the places they passed. This allowed Hu Yunfeng and others to occupy them separately without any bloodshed.
Taining Mountain, Zijing Ridge, Feihu City, and Lingqiu City have completely laid out a road that can go west at any time.
...
The western border of the Song Dynasty, Huizhou and Fuchuan City.
In the yamen of the city, a crowd of people were waiting here, drinking and chatting.
Sitting above the head is the owner of this place, Chen Zhizhong.
Chen Zhizhong, courtesy name Zhaoyu, was born in Shicheng, Qianzhou (now Shicheng County, Jiangxi Province). He was the son of Chen Shu, a famous prime minister in the Northern Song Dynasty.
His son, Chen Zhizhong, was also very ambitious and served as Privy Councilor and Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs at that time.
There is also a privy envoy. This is one of the characteristics of the Song Dynasty. In other words, it is a problem that many dynasties often encounter, that is, one official has many people.
The emperor seemed to be afraid that his subordinates would neglect him, so he would always arrange for several key positions to be held concurrently.
For example, prime minister, privy envoy, counselor of political affairs, etc., there are not many people in any position.
This can indeed prevent the concentration of power, but it also creates more internal friction. Once something really happens, everyone can blame each other, which ultimately delays the opportunity and ruins the big thing.
It was also under such circumstances that Chen Zhizhong was arranged by Zhao Zhen to serve as the privy envoy to the west and became the real leader of the Western Army.
this historical period
The relationship between the Song Dynasty and the Liao people was relatively harmonious. Although there were Japanese pirates harassing the border outside the East China Sea from time to time, it was not a problem now. What really needs to be guarded against is the warlike Xixia, and there must be a minister with a sufficiently important status here.